In the News

June 21, 2018 | President Trump’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy under the direction of Attorney General Jeff Sessions is big business for U.S. companies — from private prison and tech firms to defense and security contractors — as well as nonprofits.

January 19, 2018 | President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee raised a record $107 million with the help of wealthy benefactors but also through donations from more than 200 corporations and anonymous LLCs, some of which held government contracts.

March 24, 2017 | Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price has been mired in questions about his investments in the healthcare industry. As it turns out, some of the people helping him get grounded at the department are also prompting questions about their ties with the industry. Lance Leggitt, a lobbyist at Baker Donelson since 2006, was named…

March 13, 2017 | A former national security adviser was paid more than $500,000 last fall by a group linked with the Turkish government to discredit exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen, an enemy of the Turkish president. An Egyptian intelligence agency hired public relations firms Weber Shandwick and Cassidy & Associates to improve its image. Iraq sent letters to top Trump officials such as Secretary…

March 2, 2017 | You couldn’t blame defense contractors for being in a great mood this week. In his speech to Congress on Tuesday, President Donald Trump — who has repeatedly said he wants to build up American military dominance — announced that he’s “sending Congress a budget that rebuilds the military, eliminates the defense sequester and calls for…

December 1, 2016 | It’s no secret that Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Education Department, is a political fundraising juggernaut. Her contributions to candidates and school choice causes around the country have been all over the news since she was named the nominee. More consequential, though, are the depth and breadth of contributions by her family…

May 31, 2016 | New tax documents obtained by OpenSecrets Blog suggest that one of the oldest, most politically active nonprofits in the country, VoteVets Action Fund, devoted most of its activities in 2014 to influencing that year’s midterms. Vote Vets Action Fund — which last week attacked the presumptive GOP nominee, Donald Trump, as a “cheap fraud” — is currently…

November 24, 2015 | As they await January 2, 2016 — the day they can legally become lobbyists — former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and his former chief of staff, along with two more of Rogers’ onetime staffers, have found a use for some of the lawmaker’s $1.3 million leftover campaign funds. It doesn’t involve many contributions to other candidates or the…

November 17, 2015 | 11/17/2015, 4:12 PM: This post has been updated to build on the breaking news from this morning’s report. One of the largest and most prolific politically active nonprofits in the country was virtually the sole backer of Carolina Rising, the group that spent $4.7 million on ads supporting now-Sen. Thom Tillis’ successful run to unseat…

June 16, 2015 | Michael Galloway of Bakersfield, Calif., owns a high-traffic website that takes charitable donations, has a fleet of tech companies and is now the treasurer for a new super PAC called We Are America, according to FEC filings. He also allegedly stole money from donors to his website, Catholic.org, and evaded taxes for years, federal prosecutors say. “Doing business as…

May 4, 2015 | Scathing reports have once again spotlighted the massive cost and delays surrounding the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a jet designed for multiple branches of the military that has been dubbed the single most expensive weapons program in history. Even as criticism has rained down upon them, though, the four main contractors on the project have made sure…

April 8, 2015 | On April 13, one of the largest and most controversial political groups of the post-Citizens United era will celebrate an important anniversary: The three-year statute of limitations will expire for statements made by Crossroads GPS on tax returns covering its first 18 months, making it nearly impossible for the group to be penalized for activity it reported in…

February 5, 2015 | December’s cromnibus spending package was a bonanza for lobbyists, with the defense, banking, and health care industries especially flexing their influence muscle to make sure their priorities were on the agenda. The Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act (H.R. 83), or Cromnibus, which combined a short-term continuing resolution on Department of Homeland Security funding with broader…

January 20, 2015 | The economy is growing steadily, unemployment is down, the stock market is soaring, gas prices are diving. Good luck getting a rise out of someone by mentioning the deficit at a Washington dinner party, something that would have been unimaginable in the not-so-distant past. There’s plenty of good news for President Obama to dwell on…

September 24, 2014 | Fund for Freedom, a super PAC formed in the dead of winter in 2012, had a short life and a singular purpose. Barely more than a week before the election, it dropped $670,000 on TV ads praising Hawaii GOP Senate candidate Linda Lingle and attacking her opponent, the group’s only election expenditure of the cycle.…

January 15, 2014 | In anticipation of the Supreme Court's ruling in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, the Center for Responsive Politics and the Sunlight Foundation have teamed up to look at the deep-pocketed donors who could give even more if the justices strike down another limit on the amount of money in U.S. politics.

December 13, 2013 | The Arizona-based dark money group got almost 98 percent of its 2012 revenues from the Center to Protect Patient Rights. It spent $25.2 million, about 13 times what it spent in 2011 -- a non-election year.

November 14, 2013 | Crossroads GPS raised $180 million last year, including one donation of $22.5 million. But it was also pulling in some much smaller grants from construction industry and nursing home trade groups, OpenSecrets.org has learned.

October 7, 2013 | Twenty-three Republicans have said they are willing to make a deal on a clean budget bill that would end the shutdown. Here's a look at how money might be playing a role in their decision to break ranks.

October 1, 2013 | Making payments to government contractors is one of the many functions of the federal government which could be halted in a shutdown. The likelihood of a shutdown lasting long enough to hurt the bottom line of a company as large as Lockheed is remote, but we thought we'd take the opportunity to check out which members of Congress may have some displeased donors if the shutdown lasts a little too long.

May 22, 2013 | Two liberal tax-exempt groups, Citizens for Strength and Security and Patriot Majority, have killed themselves off and re-established multiple times, and sprouted various offshoots that play by different sets of rules. It makes them virtually impossible to track for the average citizen -- and maybe for the IRS, too.

January 24, 2013 | For both the defense sector and the pharmaceutical industry, 2012 lobbying numbers declined over 2011 -- despite a rush to keep the government from plunging over the fiscal cliff, taking many private sector entities with it.

April 17, 2012 | It's Tax Day, and that means Grover Norquist is likely to be on the TV pundit circuit. But his own group, Americans for Tax Reform, needn't worry: it's a 501(c)(4) group, and thus tax-exempt. It's also exempt from reporting its donors, even though it can engage in a significant amount of political activity.

October 31, 2011 | During the third quarter of 2011, more than 10,000 individual lobbyists actively worked to advance the interests of their clients and monitored political developments in the nation's capital. That's roughly 20 lobbyists for every member of Congress.

March 22, 2011 | Republican Tim Pawlenty, who yesterday launched a presidential exploratory committee, built a massive war chest during the 2010 election cycle to aid fellow Republicans. Who was fueling this money machine?

February 4, 2011 | The nation's financial malaise is finally catching up to K Street, where federal lobbying activity plateaued for the first time in a decade, the Center for Responsive Politics' research indicates. After a record $3.49 billion in lobbying spending in 2009, lobbying expenditures in 2010 by corporations, unions, trade associations, universities and other organizations will, at most, eclipse that amount by the narrowest of margins.

November 24, 2010 | The political action committee of L-3 Communications -- one of the two defense contractors behind the full-body scanning machines now used in more than 60 U.S. airports -- has doled out more political cash this election cycle than at any other time, the Center for Responsive Politics has found.

November 19, 2010 | MSNBC's newest suspension victim is former Congressman Joe Scarborough (R-Fla.), the current co-host of the network's "Morning Joe" program. Scarborough's recent political contributions build upon a history of giving to Republican candidates.

November 10, 2010 | Imagine that every member of Congress represents the industry or special interests that have contributed the most to his or her campaign coffers. Which industries and special interests, then, lost or won seats in Congress during the 2010 midterm election?

October 7, 2010 | Thirteen Tea Party-backed Republicans want the U.S. Senate to experience a new brand of political brew after November 2. The question isn't whether they will or won't, but rather, how many of them will be in office? And donations from people making modest campaign contributions appear poised to play an integral role in propelling them into office.

June 28, 2010 | On the campaign trail, Republican Linda McMahon has proclaimed her freedom from special interests as she spends millions of her own dollars on the race. At the same time, she is opposed to legislation that supporters say would help other candidates be equally as liberated.

May 21, 2010 | The committee hearing room was crowded as the House Administration Committee met on Thursday afternoon to markup a bill that has become a top priority for congressional Democrats and the Obama administration. After three and a half hours of debate, the DISCLOSE Act was ultimately reported favorably out of the committee on a 6-3 party-line vote.

February 5, 2010 | U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican-turned-Democrat facing a contentious re-election bid, will do so with less campaign cash after the Federal Election Commission fined him for accepting "excessive contributions from individuals and political committees." The FEC decision, announced Thursday, names both Specter's campaign committee and committee treasurer Stephen Harmelin, as respondents in the case. The FEC ruling states that they must pay a $10,900 civil penalty and refund or pay $37,950 for excess contributions to the U.S. Treasury.

October 8, 2009 | IS THE HONEYMOON OVER?: Pundits this week have been speculating whether President Barack Obama has begun to lose favor among the media and are pointing to a recent Saturday Night Live skit as evidence. But Democrats have maintained financial support from NBC employees so far this year.

August 19, 2009 | Political action committees and individuals associated with health industries, each of which are intimately involved in the nation's ongoing health care reform debate, are donating more to federal candidates during the second quarter of 2009 than the first quarter, according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis.

July 9, 2009 | Though health care companies and consumer advocacy organizations are the most active players in the nation's debate over health care reform, non-medical groups are also lobbying to promote pet causes. They are shelling out considerable cash in the hope of influencing the direction of reform this summer.

June 2, 2009 | President Barack Obama's choice for the Secretary of the Army, Rep. John McHugh (R-N.Y.) would bring with him strong ties to the defense industry's checkbooks and lobbyists, including Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and PMA Group.

April 27, 2009 | Members of both the House and Senate defense appropriations subcommittees are slated to meet as early as this week to mark up the $83.4 billion supplemental request from the Obama administration. In preparation, some lawmakers have already been lobbying their colleagues to support requests that will benefit defense contractors in their home states--companies that also help fill the campaign coffers of many members of Congress.

January 15, 2009 | Within the next few months, it will become increasingly clear how the federal government intends to tackle pressing issues, including the economy, health care reform and curbing global warming. Those efforts, led by a Democratic president and an expanded Democratic majority in Congress, might look drastically different from those of the last eight years under Republican President Bush. What won't change, however, are the attempts by special interests to influence legislation. Capital Eye looks at which industries are spending money to shape the economic stimulus, health care reform, energy policy and labor laws.

September 25, 2008 | Private interests and members of the public aren't the only ones betting their money on the congressional candidates they hope will win (or retain) congressional seats. Lawmakers in both parties have a vested interest in seeing their own candidates succeed this November, with Democrats wanting to strengthen their majority and Republicans hoping to minimize their losses. Here we look at some of the candidates getting the largest cash infusions from their own parties, indicating a close race.

September 3, 2008 | Preparing for a general election in which he cannot collect private donations, John McCain vaulted in front of Barack Obama in fundraising from one of the biggest groups of donors in American politics: the senior set. A new analysis of the Republican nominee's summer fundraising by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has found McCain leading Obama among retired donors almost two to one in June and July, $8.1 million to $4.5 million.

August 26, 2008 | While school was out, college professors and other educators were putting money into Barack Obama's presidential campaign, according to a new analysis of the Democratic nominee's summer fundraising. Educators contributed at least $2.3 million to his campaign in June and July, surpassed only by lawyers, who make up Obama's top-giving industry since the campaign's start, and retirees.

July 9, 2008 | Political fundraising firm BMW Direct raised about $731,000 for Massachusetts Republican Charles Morse, who in 2006 challenged Rep. Barney Frank, by targeting conservatives across the country who were eager to give a prominent liberal the boot from Washington. The only problem? Morse wasn't even on the ballot, and his campaign only saw 4 percent of that haul, the Boston Globe recently reported.

April 24, 2008 | The New York Times generated a lot of buzz this week with a story about military analysts who work for military contractors when they're not opining on television. The analysts, who have unprecedented access to information from the Bush administration, lobby for military contractors, serve on their boards and act as consultants to them.

April 10, 2008 | Corporations, industries, labor unions, governments and other interests spent a record $2.79 billion in 2007 to lobby for favorable policies in Washington, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has calculated.

April 3, 2008 | From aircraft and weapons manufacturers to producers of medical supplies and soft drinks, the investment portfolios of more than a quarter of Congress—and of countless constituents—include holdings in companies paid billions of dollars each month to support America's military in Iraq and elsewhere.

November 15, 2007 | Top industries and interest groups have increased their giving over 2004 by 46 percent, Center finds. As money shifts to Democrats, giving from Republican strongholds is mostly flat.

February 8, 2007 | A generous giver to Republicans, the defense sector is facing new scrutiny now that Democrats are in control. By Lindsay Renick Mayer February 08, 2007 | In questioning just how many taxpayer dollars have been wasted on bloated contracts to fight the war in Iraq, members of a congressional oversight committee refuted the notion Wednesday…

January 22, 2007 | Global warming, the Iraq war and balancing the budget are likely to be among the issues the president addresses. By Lindsay Renick Mayer January 22, 2007 | When President Bush takes the podium on Tuesday night to deliver his annual address, he will do so before a nation that is far less supportive of his…

October 25, 2006 | This year's intensely competitive election for control of the House of Representatives and Senate will be the most expensive midterm election ever, the Center for Responsive Politics predicts. Candidates, national political parties and outside issue advocacy groups will spend roughly $2.6 billion by the end of 2006 to influence the 472 federal contests around the United States and pad the war chests of incumbents not running this year.

June 22, 2006 | Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White haven’t just hired appropriations staffers to gain influence. The lobbyists and their clients have bankrolled committee members’ campaigns and PACs. By Massie Ritsch June 22, 2006 | Clients of a Washington, D.C. lobbying firm under federal investigation have contributed at least $6.2 million to the campaigns and political action…

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